AWYER'S REYELATIOE 



REVELATION OF JOHN; 



ANALYZED, TRANSLATED AND ACCOMPANIED WITH 



CRITICAL STUDIES, 



BY 



REV, LEICESTER A. SAWYER, 



TBANSLA.TOB OF THE SCRIPTURES, ETC* 



'rr 



PUPLISHED BY THE AUTHOR, 

WHITESBORO, N, Y. 

1883, 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1883, 
By Rev. L. A. SAWYER, 
in the Library of Congress, at Washington. 



T. J GRIFFITHS, PRINTER, UTICA. 



CONTENTS. 



PART I. 1 : 1—3 : 22. 68 A. D. 

PAGE 

1. John and his vision of Jesus 5 

2. Letters to the seven churches 9 

PART II. 4: 1—9; 22, 69--193 A. D. ; 124 years. 



1. Heaven visited, its occnpants, services, and the book of 

the later prophets opened 13 

2. First six seals from Vespasian to Comniodus 16 

3. Seventh seal, its first six trumpets, from Commodus to 

the Roman imperial demon 20 

PART III. 10: 1—18: 24; 193-197 A. D. 

1. The celestial book of Daniel eaten, the two celestial wit- 

nesses 24 

2. Seventh trumpet; the dragon, his war in heaven, he is cast 

out with his adherents, the Roman imperial and priest 
demons 27 

3. The Lamb and 144,000 virgins on Mount Zion, the angel 

heralds and harvesters 31 

4. The last seven plagues 34 

5. A demon harlot carried by the imperial demon, the whole 

interpreted 37 

6. The fall of Babylon 39 



iv CONTENTS. 

PART IV. 19: 1—22: 21; 200--1200 A. D. 



1. Jesus reigns a thousand years, Satan imprisoned 42 

2. Post Millennial revolt, final judgment, new heaven, new 

earth and New Jerusalem : 45 

3. Conclusion 49 

CRITICAL STUDIES. 

1. History of the work 51 

2. The author and time of the work t>3 

3. The Theology of the work 57 

4. The Demonology of the work 62 

5. The riddle of the number 666 denoting the name of the 

demon 66 

6. Place of hostile encampment 67 

7. Estimate of the work 68 



REVELATION OF JOHN, 150 A. D. 

PART I. 1: 1—8: 22. 

JOHN HAS A VISION OF JESUS, IS COMMANDED TO WRITE HIS BOOK, 
AND WRITES TO THE SEVEN CHURCHES. 

CHAPTER I. 1 : 1-20. 

John and his vision of Jesus. 

1: 1. Revelation of Jesus Christ which the God 
gave him to show to his servants things shortly to 
come to pass, which he sent and signified by his angel, 
to his servant John, 

2. Who testified the word of the God, and the tes- 
timony of Jesus Christ which he saw, 

3. Blessed are he that .reads and they that hear the 
words of the prophecy, and keep the things written in 
it ; for the time is near. 

4. John to the seven churches in Asia, Grace be to 
you, and peace from him that is, and that was, and that 
is to come, from the seven spirits which are before his 
throne, 

5. And from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the 
first born of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of 
the earth. To him that loves us and has washed us 
from our sins in his blood, 

6. And made us a kingdom and priests to his God 
and Father ; to him be glory, and power for the aeons. 
Amen. 



6 JOHN AND HIS VISION OF JESUS. 

7. Behold he comes with the clouds, and every eye 
shall see him, and they that pierced him and all the 
tribes of the earth shall mourn because of him. Yes. 
Amen. 

8. I am the Alpha and the Omega, says Master 
the God, who is, and was, and is to come, the Om- 
nipotent. 

9. I, John, your brother and companion in the af- 
fliction and kingdom, and patience, in Christ Jesus, 
was on the island called Patmos, for the word of the 
God, and the testimony of Jesus. 

10. I was in [the] spirit on the Master's day, and 
heard a loud voice behind me, as of a trumpet, 

11. Saying : What you see, write in a book, and 
send to the seven churches, to Ephesus, Smyrna, Per- 
gamus, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea. 

12. And I turned to see the voice that spoke to me, 
and having turned, I saw seven gold light-stands : 

13. And in the midst of the light-stands, one like a 
son of man, clothed with a [robe] reaching to his feet> 
and girded about the loins with a golden girdle ; 

14. His head and hairs were white, as white wool } 
as snow, and his eyes like a flame of fire ; 

15. His feet were like fine brass, as if burned in a 
furnace ; and his voice was as a sound of many 
waters ; 

16. He had in his right hand seven stars, out of his 
mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and his appear- 
ance was as the sun shines in his strength. 

17. And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as one 
dead, and he put his right hand on me, saying : Fear 
not, I am the first and the last ; 



LETTERS TO THE CHURCHES. 



7 



18. And he that lives; I was dead, and I live for 

the aeons of the aeons, and have the keys of Death and 
of Hades. 

19. Write, therefore, what you saw, the things that 
are, and those that shall be after these. 

20. The mystery of the seven stars that you saw in 
my right hand, and the seven golden light-stands, 
The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, 
and the light-stands are the seven churches. 

CHAPTER II. 2 : 1-3 : 22. 

Letters to the seven churches. 

2: 1. To the angel of the church in Ephesus 
write these things, says he that holds the seven stars in 
his right hand, that walks amid the seven golden 
light stands : 

2. I know your works, your labor, and your pa- 
tience, and that you cannot bear the evil, and have 
tried them that say they are apostles and are not, and 
found them false ; 

3. And you have patience and have borne affliction 
for my name, and not fainted ; 

4. But I have this against you, that you have left 
your first love ; 

5. Remember, therefore, whence you have fallen, 
and repent and do the first works ; otherwise I will 
come to you and remove your light-stand out of its 
place unless you repent. 

6. But you have this, that you hate the works of the 
Nicolaites which I also hate, [the Marcionites rejected 
marriage.] 



8 



LETTERS TO THE CRURCHES. 



7. He that has an ear let him hear what the spirit 
says to the churches; to him that overcomes will I 
give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise 
of my God. 

8. And to the angel of the church in Smyrna, 
write these things, says the first and last, who was 
dead and is alive, 

9. I know your affliction and poverty; but you 
are rich, and the blasphemy of them that say they are 
Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of the Satan. 

10. Fear not those things which you are to suffer ; 
for behold the devil will cast some of you into prison 
to be tried, and you will have affliction ten days ; be 
faithful till death, and I will give you the crown of 
the life. 

11. He that has an ear let him hear what the spirit 
says to the churches. He that overcomes shall not be 
hurt by the second death, 

12. And to the angel of the church in Pergamus, 
write these things, says he that has the sharp two- 
edged sword : 

13. I know where you dwell, where the Satan's seat 
is, and you hold fast my name, and denied not my 
faith in the days in which Antipas, my faithful wit- 
ness, was killed among you, where the Satan dwells. 

14. But I have a few things against you ; you have 
there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who 
taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before the sons 
of Isral, and to [cause them to] eat things offered to 
idols, and to commit fornication. 

15. So you have them also that hold the doctrine of 
the Nicolaites ; 



LETTERS TO THE CHURCHES. 



9 



16. Repent, therefore; otherwise I will come to 
you quickly, and fight with them with the sword of 
my mouth. 

17* He that has an ear, let him hear what the spirit 
says to the churches. To him that overcomes will I 
give of the hidden manna, and I will give him a 
white stone, and on the stone a new name written, 
which none know r s except he that receives it. 

18. And to the angel of the church in Thyatira, 
write these thing, says the son of the God, who has 
eyes like a flame of fire, and his feet are like fine 
brass: 

19. I know your works, love, faith, service, and 
patience ; the last more than the first ; 

20. But I have [this] against you, that you suffer 
your woman Jezebel, who says she is a prophetess. 
She teaches and misleads my servants to commit for- 
nication, and eat things offered to idols ; 

21. And I gave her time to repent, and she will not 
repent of her fornication. 

22. Behold, I will cast her on a bed, and them that 
commit adultery with her into great affliction, unless 
they repent of her works ; 

23. And her children will I kill with death, and 
all the churches shall know r that I am he that searches 
reins and hearts ; and I will give to each of you ac- 
cording to your works. 

24. But I say to the rest of you w 7 ho are in Thya- 
tira, who have not this doctrine, and who know not 
the depths of the Satan as they say : I will put on you 
no other burden ; 

25. But hold fast what you have, till I come, 



10 



LETTERS TO THE CHURCHES. 



26. And he that overcomes and keeps my works to 
the end, I will give him power over the nations; 

27. And he shall rule them with a rod of iron as a 
potter's vessels are broken, as I have received from 
my father ; 

28 And I will give him the morning star. 

29. He that has an ear, let him hear what the spirit 
says to the churches. 

3 : 1. And to the angel of the church in Sardis, write 
these things, says he that has the seven spirits of the 
God, and the seven stars : I know your works, that 
you have a name to live and are dead ; 

2. Be watchful and strengthen the things that re- 
main, that are ready to die, for I have not found your 
works perfect before my God. 

3. Remember, therefore, how you received and 
heard, and hold fast, and repent. If, therefore, you 
will not watch, I will come as a thief, and you shall 
not know at what hour I will come on you ; 

4. But you have a few names in Sardis [of them] 
that have not defiled their garments, and they shall 
walk with me in white, for they are worthy, 

5. He that overcomes, shall be clothed in white 
clothing, and I will on no account blot his name from 
the book of life, and I will confess his name before 
my Father, and before his angels. 

6. He that has an ear, let him hear what the spirit 
says to the churches : 

7. And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia, 
write these things, says the holy one, the true one, who 
has the key of David, who opens and none can shut, 
and shuts and none can open : 



LETTERS TO THE CHURCHES. 



11 



8. I know your works. Behold, I have set before 
you an open door, which none can shut ; for you have 
a little strength, and have kept my word, and have 
not denied my name. 

9. Behold, [those] of the synagogue of the Satan, 
who say they are Jews, and are not, but lie ; behold, I 
will cause them to come and worship before your feet ; 
and they shall know that I loved you. 

10. Because you kept the word of my patience, I 
also will keep you, from the hour of trial that is to 
come on the whole world to try them that dwell on 
the earth. 

11. I come quickly, hold fast what you have, let 
none take your crown. 

12. Him that overcomes, will I make a pillar in the 
temple of my God, and he shall go out ho more, and I 
will write on him the name of my God, and the name 
of the city of my God, the new Jersalem that comes 
down out of heaven from my God, and my new name. 

13. He that has an ear, let him hear what the spirit 
says of the churches : 

14. And to the angel of the church in Laodicea^ 
write these things, says the Amen, the faithful and 
true witness, the beginning of the creation of the God : 

15. I know your works, that you are neither cold 
nor hot ; 

16. So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot 
nor cold, I will spue you out of my mouth ; 

17. For you say : I am rich, and abound, and have 
need of nothing, and know not that you are miserable, 
and pitiable, and poor, and blind, and naked. 

18. I advise you to buy from me gold tried by fire, 



12 



LETTEES TO THE CRUNCHES. 



that you may be rich, and white garments, that you 
may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness 
may not appear, and eye-salve to anoint your eyes, that 
you may see. 

19. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten ; be 
zealous, therefore, and repent. 

20. Behold, I stand at the door and knock ; if any 
one hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in 
to him, and will sup with him ; and he [shall sup] 
with me. 

21. He that overcomes, to him will I give to sit 
with me on my throne, as I overcame and sat with my 
Father on his throne. 

22. He that has an ear, let him hear what the spirit 
says to the churches. 



PART IL 4 : 1-9 : 21. 69-193 A. R 



124 YEAES. 

THE TEN HORNS OF DANIEL 7: 7 KEIGN, BEGINNING WITH VESPA- 
SIAN IN 69 A. D. 

CHAPTER I. 

Heaven visited, its occupants and services, the book of 
the later Hebrew prophets opened by the Iamb. 

4 : 1, After this I saw, and behold a door was opened 
in heaven, and the first voice which I heard was as of 
a trumpet speaking to me, saying : Come up hither 
and I will show you what must come to pass hereafter r 

2. And immediately 1 was in the spirit ; and be- 
hold, a throne was set in the heaven, and one sat on 
the throne ; 

3. And he that sat on the throne was in appearance 
like a jasper, and a sardian stone ; and a rainbow was 

; round the throne, in appearance like an emerald, 

4. And round the throne were twenty-four thrones, 
and on the thrones twenty-four elders, sitting, clothed 
in white, [having] on their heads crowns of gold. 

5. And from the throne proceeded lightnings, and 
voices and thunders. And seven lamps blazed before 
the throne, which are the seven spirits of the God ; 
[the seven archangels] ; 

6. And before the throne was, as it were, a sea of 
glass, like a crystal, and in the midst ot the throne^ 



14 



HEAVEN VISITED. 



and around the throne were four animals, full of eyes 
before and behind ; 

7. And the first animal was like a lion, and the 
second like a bullock, and the third had a face like a 
man, and the fourth was like a flying eagle. 

8. And as to the four, each of them had six wings ; 
and they had no rest, day nor night, saying : Holy, 
holy, holy is Master the God omnipotent, who was, and 
is, and is to come. 

9. And when the animals gave glory and honor and 
thanks to him that sits on the throne, that lives for 
the aeons of the aeons, 

10. The twenty-four elders fall down before him that 
sat on the throne, and worship him that lives for the 
aeons of the aeons, and cast their crowns before his 
throne, saying: 

11. Worthy are you, our Master and our God, to re- 
ceive glory and honor and power, for you created all 
things, and by your will they were, and were created. 

5: 1. And I saw on the right hand of him that sat 
on the throne a book, written within and on the back 
side, sealed with seven seals. 

2. And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a 
loud voice : Who is worthy to open the book, and 
loose its seals? 

3. And none was able in heaven, nor on earth, nor 
under the earth, to open the book, nor to see it. 

4. And I wept much, because none was found wor- 
thy to open the book, nor to see it. 

5. And one of the elders said to me : Weep not ; 
behold the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the root of Da- 



HEAVEN VISITED. 



15 



vid, has conquered; he opens the book and, its seven 
seals. 

6. And I saw in the midst of the throne and of the 
four animals, and in the midst of the elders, a lamb 
[the constellation Aries, the Ram], standing as he was 
killed, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are 
seven spirits of the God sent into all the earth ; 

7. And he came and took the book from the right 
hand of him that sat on the throne; 

8. And when he took the book the four animals 
and twenty-four elders fell down before the lamb, hav- 
ing each a cythara and golden bowls full of incense, 
which are the prayers of the holy [ones, the celestials.] 

9. And they sung a new song, saying : You are 
worthy to take the book and open its seals ; for you 
were killed, and redeemed as to the God by your 
blood, from every tribe, tongue, people and nation ; 

10. And you made us a kingdom and priests — and 
they reign on the earth. 

11. And I saw, and heard a voice of many angels 
round the throne, and of the animals and elders ; and 
the number was ten thousands of ten thousands, and 
thousands of thousands ; 

12. Saying with a loud voice: Worthy is the lamb 
that was killed to receive power, riches, wisdom, 
strength, honor, glory and blessing. 

13. And every creature which is in heaven and on 
earth, and under the earth, and on the sea, and all the 
things in them, heard I saying : To him that sits on 
the throne and to the lamb, be blessing, honor, glory 
and power for the aeons of the aeons ; 

14. And the the four animals said. Amen ; and the 
elders fell down and worshiped. 



16 



THE FIRST SIX SEALS. 



CHAPTER II. 6 : 1-7 : 17, 69-180 A. T>. 

The first six seals from Vespasian to Commodus, 111 
years. 

1. 6: 1. And I saw when the Iamb opened one of 
the seven seals ; 

2. And I heard one of the four animals say, as a 
voice of thunder : Come. 

3. And I saw and beheld a white horse, and he that 
sat on him had a bow, and a crown was given him, 
and he went forth conquering and to conquer. [Ves- 
pasian and Titus, 69-81, twelve years.] 

II. 3, And when he opened the second seal, I heard 
the second animal say : Come. 

4. And another, a red horse came forth, and it was 
given to him that sat on him, to take peace from the 
earth, and that they should slaughter one another, and a 
great sword was given him. [Domitian 81-96, fifteen 
years.] 

III. 5. And he opened the third seal, and I heard 
the third animal say : Come. And I saw, and behold 
a black horse, and he that sat on him had scales in his 
hand; 

6. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four 
animals saying : A choenix [quart] of wheat for a de- 
narius [15 cents], and three choenices of barley for a 
denarius ; and hurt not the oil and wine. [The demorr 
of famine under Ne^va and Trajan, 96-117, twenty- 
one years. 



THE FIRST SIX SEALS. 



17 



IV. 7. And when he opened the fourth seal I heard 
the fourth animal say : Coine. 

8. And I saw, and behold a pale horse, and one sat 
on him whose name was Death ; and Hades followed 
with him, and power was given him over a fourth 
part of the earth to kill with a sword and famine and 
pestilence, and by the beasts of the earth. [The Angel 
of Death under Hadrian, 117-138, twenty-one years.] 

9. And when he opened the fifth seal I saw under 
the altar, the souls of them that were killed for the 
word of the God, and for the testimony which they 
had. 

10. And they cried with a loud voice, saying : How 
long, Master, holy and true, will you not judge and 
avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth ? 

11. And a white robe was given them ; and it was 
told them that they should rest for a time till their 
fellow-servants and their brothers who were to be 
killed as they had been, should accomplish their suf- 
ferings. [A time of rest, under Antoninus Pius, 
138-161, twenty-three years.] 

12. And I saw when he opened the sixth seal [un- 
der Aurelius 161-180, twenty-nine years], and there 
was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as 
sackcloth of hair, and the moon became all like blood ; 

13. And the stars fell from heaven as a fig tree casts 
off her untimely fruit when shaken by a mighty wind, 

14. And heaven passed away like a book that is 
rolled up, and all the mountains and islands were re- 
moved from their places; 

15. And the kings of the earth, the great ones, the 
commanders of thousands, the rich, the strong and 



18 



THE FIKST SIX SEALS. 



every slave and freeman hid themselves in the caves, 
and in the mountains ; 

16. And said to the mountains and rocks: Fall on 
us and hide us from the face of him that sits on the 
throne, and from the Orge [avenger] of the lamb ; 

17. For the great day of his [avenger] has come, and 
who can stand? [Based on Isa. 13: 1-16, 24, 34: 
1-17.] 

7: 1. And after this, I saw four angels stand on 
the four corners of the earth holding the four winds, 
that they might not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, 
nor on any tree. 

2. And I saw another angel ascend from the east, 
having a seal of the living God, and he cried with a 
loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to 
hurt the earth and the sea ; 

3. Saying : Hurt not the earth nor the sea, nor the 
trees, till we have sealed the servants of the God in 
their foreheads. 

4. And I heard the number of those sealed ; 144,000 
were sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel. 

5-8. From the tribe of Judah were sealed 12,000 I 
from the tribe of Reuben, 12,000; from the tribe of 
Gad, 12,000 ; from the tribe of Asher, 12,000 ; from 
the tribe of Naphtali, 12,000; from the tribe of Ma- 
nasse, 12,000; from the tribe of Simeon, 12,000; 
from the tribe of Levi, 12,000 ; from the tribe of 
Issachar, 12,000 ; from the tribe of Zebulun, 12,000 ; 
from the tribe of Joseph, 12,000; from the tribe of 
Benjamin, 12,000. 

9. After this I saw, and behold there was a great 
multitude, which none could number, of all nations, 



THE FIRST SIX SEALS. 



19 



tribes, people and tongues, standing before the throne, 
and before the lamb, clothed with white robes, and 
palm branches were in their hands ; 

10. And they cried with a loud voice, saying: Sal- 
vation for our God that sits on the throne, and to the 
lamb ; 

11. And all the angels stood round the throne and 
round the elders, and the four animals, and they fell 
on their faces before the throne and worshiped the 
God, 

12. Saying : Amen, blessing, glory, wisdom, thanks- 
giving, honor, power and might be to our God, for the 
aeons of the aeons. 

13. And one of the elders answered me, saying ; 
Who are these that are clothed with white robes, and 
whence did they come ? 

14. And I said to him : My master, you know. 
And he said to me : These are they who came out of 
great affliction and washed their robes, and whitened 
them with the blood of the lamb ; 

15. Therefore are they before the throne of the God, 
and serve him day and night in his temple, and he 
that sits on the throne spreads his tent over them; 

16. They shall hunger no more, nor thirst any more,* 
neither shall the sun fall on them, nor any heat ; 

17. For the lamb who is in the midst of the throne 
will feed them, and lead them by fountains of the wa- 
ters of life, and the God will wipe away all tears from: 
their eyes. 



20 



THE SEVENTH SEAL. 



CHAPTER III. 8: 1-9: 21. 180-193 A. D. 

13 YEAKS. 

The seventh seal; its first six trumpets, from Commodus 
to the Roman imperial demon. 

8 : 1. And when he opened the seventh seal, there 
was silence in heaven about half an hour ; 

2. And I saw the seven angels who stood before the 
God, and seven trumpets were given them. 

3. And another angel came, and was stationed on 
the altar having a golden censer; and much incense 
was given him to offer with the prayers of all the saints, 
[celestials] on the golden altar which was before the 
throne; 

4. And the smoke of the incense went up with the 
prayers of the saints, from the hand of the angel before 
the God, 

5. And the angel took the censer and filled it from 
the fire of the altar, and cast it on the earth, and there 
were thunders and lightnings, and voices, and an earth- 
quake. 

6. And the seven angels having the seven trumpets, 
prepared themselves to sound ; 

7. And the first sounded ; and there was hail and 
fire mixed with blood, and it was cast on the earth. 
And a third of the earth, and a third of the trees, and 
all the green grass were burned up. 

8. And the second angel sounded; and a great 
mountain as it were, burning with fire, was cast into 
the sea ; 



THE SEVENTH SEAL. 



21 



9. And a third of the sea became blood, and a third 
of the creatures in the sea having life, died, and a 
third of the ships were destroyed. 

10. And the third angel sounded; and there fell 
from the heaven a great star, burning like a lamp, and 
it fell on a third of the rivers, and on the fountains 
of the waters ; 

11. And the name of the star was called wormwood ; 
and a third of the waters became wormwood, and 
manv men died from the waters, because they were 
bitter. 

12. And the fourth angel sounded; and a third of 
the sun was smitten, and a third of the moon, and a 
third of the stars, so that a third of them was darkened, 
and the day shone not a third of it, and the night like- 
wise. 

13. And I saw, and heard an eagle flying in mid 
heaven, saying with a loud voice: Woe, woe, woe, to 
them that dwell on the earth ; from the rest of the 
voices of the trumpets of the three angels which are 
yet to sound. 

9 : 1. And the fifth angel sounded ; and I saw a 
star which had fallen from heaven to the earth [a fallen 
angel] ; and there was given him the keys of the shaft 
of the abyss ; 

2. And he opened the shaft of the abyss, and there 
ascended smoke from the shaft, like the smoke of a 
great furnace; and the sun and air were darkened from 
the smoke of the shaft. 

3. And out ol the smoke came locusts on the earthy 
and power was given them as scorpions of the earth 
have power. Joel 1 : 1-12. 

3 



22 



THE SEVENTH SEAL. 



4. And it was told them not to injure the grass of 
the earth, nor any green thing, nor any tree, except the 
men who had not the seal of the God on their fore- 
heads. 

5. And it was given them not to kill them ; but 
[to cause] them to be tormented five months. And 
their torment was like the sting of a scorpion when he 
strikes a man. 

6. And in those days men will seek death and not 
find it, and desire to die ; and death will flee from 
them. 

7. And the form of the locusts was like horses pre- 
pared for battle, and on their heads were crowns like 
gold ; and their faces were like the faces of men ; 

8. And they had hair like the hair of women, and 
their teeth were like those of lions. 

9. And they had breastplates, like breastplates of 
iron ; and the sound of their wings was like the sound 
of chariots, with many horses, rushing to battle. 

10. And they had tails like scorpions, and stings; 
and power was in their tails to injure men five months. 

11. They had a king over them, an angel of the 
abyss, whose name in Hebrew was Abaddon; in Greek 
he has hfe name Apollyon [destroyer]. 

12. The first woe is past ; behold there come yet 
two woes after this. 

13. And the sixth angel sounded ; and I heard the 
first voice from the four horns of the golden altar, that 
was before the god, 

14. Say to the sixth angel who had the trumpet : 
Loose the four angels bound on the great river 



THE SEVENTH SEAL. 



23 



Euphrates. [The angel princes of Media, Persia, 
Assyria, and Babylon]. 

15. And the four angels were loosed, prepared for 
the hour, and day, and month, and year, to kill a third 
of the men. 

16. And the number of the armies of horses was 
twice ten thousands of ten thousands ; I heard their 
number. 

17. And so I saw the horses in the vision, and those 
that sat on them, [infernals] having breastplates of fire 
and hyacinth and brimstone. [Isa, 13: 2-16. Joel 2; 
1-11.] And the heads of the horses were like the heads 
of lions, and there proceeded from their mouth fire, and 
smoke, and brimstone. 

18. By these three plagues were a third of men 
killed, by the fire, and the smoke, and the brimstone, 
that proceeded from their mouths ; 

19. For the power of the horses was in their mouths, 
and in their tails; for their tails were like serpents } 
having heads, and with them they did injury. 

20. And the rest of men who were not killed by 
these plagues, repented not of the works of their hands, 
not to worship demons and idols of gold, silver, brass, 
stone, and wood, which can neither see, hear, nor 
walk ; 

21. And they repented not of their murders, sorcer- 
ies, fornications, nor thefts. 



PART III. 10: 1-18: 24. 193-197 A. D. 



THE LITTLE HORN OF DAN. 7 1 8, 14-26, MISTAKEN FOR AN EVIL DEMON 
IN 2 THESS. 2: 1-12, AND HERE, REIGNS THREE AND A HALF YEARS. 

CHAPTER L 10: 1—11: 14. 193-197 A. D 

The celestial book of Daniel eaten ; the two celestial wit- 
nesses. 

10: 1. And I saw another strong angel come down 
from heaven ; and a rainbow was round his head, and 
his face was like the sun, and his feet were like pillars 
of fire ; 

2. And he had in his hand a little book opened, 
and he put his right foot on the sea, and the left on 
the land ; 

3. And cried with a loud voice, as a lion roars ; and 
when he cried, the seven thunders uttered their voices 

4. And when the seven thunders had spoken, I was 
about to write ; and I heard a voice from heaven, say- 
ing : Seal up what the seven thunders said, and write 
it not. 

5. And the angel whom 1 saw stand on the sea and 
land, lifted up his right hand to heaven, 

6. And swore by him that lives for the aeons of the 
aeons, that created heaven and the things in it, and the 
earth and the things in her, and the sea and the things 
in her, that time shall be no longer ; 



THE CELESTIAL BOOK. 



25 



7. But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, 
who is about to sound the mystery of the God, will be 
finished, as he told his servants the prophets. 

8. And there was a voice which I heard Irom heaven 
again speaking to me, and saying : Go take the little 
book which is opened in the hand of the angel, that 
stands on the sea and on the land. 

9. And I went to the angel, and told him to give 
me the little book, and he said to me : Take and eat 
it ; and it will be bitter in your belly, but in your 
mouth it will be sweet as honey. 

10. And I took the little book from the hand of 
the angel, and ate it, and it was in my mouth sweet as 
honey ; and when I had eaten it my belly was bitter. 

11. And they said to me: You must prophesy be- 
fore peoples, and nations, and tongues, and many kings. 

11 : 1. And there was given me a reed like a staff, 
[the angel] saying : Arise and measure the temple of 
the God, and the altar, and them that worship in it ; 

2. But the court outside of the temple leave out and 
measure it not, for it is given to the Gentiles, and they 
shall tread down the holy city forty-two months, [three 
and a half years]. 

3. And I will charge my two witnesses; and they 
shall prophesy 1,260 days, [three and a half years] 
clothed in sackcloth. 

4. These are the two olive trees and the two light- 
stands that stand before the master of the earth [Zach 
4: 2-14]; 

5. And if any one wishes to injure them, fire pro- 
ceeds from their mouths, and devours their enemies ; 



26 



THE CELESTIAL BOOK. 



and if any one wishes to injure them he must be so 
killed. 

6. These have power to shut heaven, that there may 
be no rain in the days of their prophecy, and they have 
power over the waters to change them into blood, and 
to smite the earth with every curse as often as they 
will, 

7. And when they finish their testimony, the beast 
which ascends from the abyss will make war with 
them, and conquer them and kill them, 

8. And their bodies will be in the street of the great 
city that is called spiritually Sodom and Egypt ; where 
also their Master was crucified. 

9. And men of the peoples, and tribes, and tongues, 
and nations, shall see their dead bodies three days and 
a half, and not suffer them to be buried. 

10. And they that dwell on the earth, shall rejoice 
over them and be glad, and send gifts one to another, 

because these two prophets tormented them that dwell 
on the earth. 

11. And after three days and a half, a spirit of life 
from the God entered into them, and they stood 
on their feet, and great fear fell on them that saw them. 

12. And I heard a loud voice from heaven say to 
them : Come up hither; and they went up to heaven 
in a cloud, and their enemies beheld them. 

13. And in that hour there was a great earthquake, 
and a tenth of the city fell, and 7,000 men were killed 
by the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave 
glory to the God of heaven. 

14. The second woe is past, and behold the third 
woe comes quickly. 



THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 



27 



CHAPTEE II. 11: 15—13: 18. 193-197 A. D. 

The seventh trumpet ; the dragon and his war in heaven ; 
he is vanquished and cast out with his adherents; 
the Soman imperial and priest demons reign three 
and a half years. 

11: 15. And the seventh angel sounded ; and there 
were loud voices in heaven saying : The kingdom of 
the world is our Master's and his Christ's, and he will 
reign for the aeons of the aeons. 

16. And the twenty-four elders that sat on their 
thrones before the God, fell on their faces and wor- 
shiped the God, 

17. Saying: We thank you, Master the God omnip- 
otent, who is and was, that you took your great power 
and reigned; 

18. And the nations were angry, and your Orge 
[avenger] came, and the time of the dead that they 
should be judged, and that you should reward your 
servants, the prophets, and the holy ones [angels], and 
them that fear your name, small and great, and de- 
stroy them that destroyed the earth. 

19. And the temple of the God was opened in 
heaven, and the ark of his covenant appeared in his 
temple, and there were lightnings, and voices, and 
thunders, and great hail. 

12 : 1. And a great sign appeared in heaven ; a 
woman wrapped about with the sun [the constellation 
Virgo], and the moon was under her feet, and on her 
head was a crown of twelve stars. 



28 



THE] SEVENTH TRUMPET. 



2. And she was with child, and cried with labor, 
and was in pain to be delivered. 

3. And another sign appeared in the heaven ; and 
behold there was a great red dragon [the constellation 
Draco], having seven heads and ten horns, and on his 
heads seven crowns, 

4. And his tail drew a third of the stars of heaven, 
and cast them oo the earth ; and the dragon stood be- 
fore the woman that was about to bear, when she bore, 
to devour her son. 

5. And she bore a son, a male child who was to rule 
all nations with a rod of iron, and her child wa& 
caught up to the God, to his throne. 

6. And the woman fled to the wilderness, where a 
place was prepared for her by the God, that they 
might nourish her there 1,260 days, [three and a half 
years]. 

7. And there was war in heaven— Michael and his 
angels fighting with the dragon; and the dragon fought 
and his angels ; 

8. And he could not prevail, nor was their place 
found any more in heaven. 

9. And the great dragon, the old serpent, called the 
devil and Satan, that deceived the whole world, was 
cast out, and cast on the earth ; and his angels were 
cast out with him. 

10. And I heard a loud voice in heaven saying: 
Now has come salvation, power, the reign of our God, 
and the authority of his Christ, for the accuser of our 
brothers is cast out, who accused them day and night 
before our God. 

11. And they conquered him by the blood of the 



THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 



29 



lamb, and by the word of their testimony, and loved 
not their lives, even to death. 

12. Be glad therefore, heavens, and those that dwell 
in them ; woe to the earth and sea, for the devil has 
come down to you, having great anger, knowing that 
his time is short. 

13. And when the dragon saw that he was cast on 
the earth, he persecuted the woman that bore the male 
[child]. 

14. And there were given the woman two wings of 
a great eagle, to fly into the wilderness to her place ? 
where she is nourished for a time and times and half 
a time [three and a half years], away from before the 
serpent. 

15. And the serpent cast out of his mouth after the 
woman water, like a river, to cause her to be carried 
away; 

16. But the earth helped the woman, and the earth 
opened her mouth, and drank up the river which the 
dragon cast out of his mouth. 

17. And the dragon was enraged against the woman,, 
and went away to fight with the rest of her seed, that 
keep the commandments of the God, and have the tes- 
timony of Jesus. 

18. And I stood on the sand of the sea, 

13 : 1. And saw a beast rise up out of the sea hav- 
ing ten horns and seven heads, and on his horns ten 
crowns, and on his head names of blasphemy [the 
Roman imperial demon]. 

2. And the beast which I saw was like a leopard, 
and his feet like a bear, and his mouth like the mouth 



30 



THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 



of a lion ; and the dragon gave him his power and his 
throne, and great authority. 

3. And I saw one of his heads [corresponding to 
Julius Csesar], as wounded to death, and his deadly- 
wound was healed, [in Augustus], and the whole earth 
wondered after the beast ; 

4. And they worshiped the dragon because he gave 
authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, 
saying : Who is like the beast? and who can fight 
with him ? 

5. And a mouth was given him, speaking great things 
and blasphemy ; and power was given him to continue 
forty-two months, [three and a half years]. 

6. And he opened his mouth in blasphemies against 
the God, to blaspheme his name and his tabernacle, 
and thorn that dwell in heaven. 

7. And it was given him to make war with the saints, 
and to conquer them ; and power was given him over 
every tribe, and tongue, and nation ; 

8. And all who dwell on the earth shall worship 
him, whose names are not written in the book of life of 
the lamb, killed from the founding of the world. 

9. If any one has an ear, let him hear. 

10. If any one [carries] into captivity, he shall go 
into captivity; if any one kills with a sword, he shall 
be killed with a sword. Here is the faith and patience 
of the holy ones. 

11. And I saw another beast come up from the earth, 
and he had two horns like a lamb, [corresponding to 
the Roman priests and augurs], and he spoke like a 
dragon. 

12. And he exercised all the authority of the first 



THE SEVENTH TRUMPET. 



31 



beast before him, and caused the earth, and those who 
^well on it, to worship the first beast, whose deadly 
wound was healed ; 

13. And did great miracles, so that he caused fire to 
come down from heaven in the sight of men ; 

14. And deceived them that dwell on the earth, by 
the signs, which it was given him to do before the 
beast, telling them that dwell on the earth to make an 
image of the beast that had the wound with the sword 
and lived ; 

15. And it was given him to give a spirit to the 
image of the beast, that the image of the beast should 
command and cause that all who will not worship the 
image of the beast, shall be killed. [This image was 
supposed to be set up in the temple. 2 Thess., 2 : 4.] 

16. And he shall cause all, both small and great, rich 
and poor, free and slaves, [to consent] to have put on 
them a mark on their right hands or on their fore- 
heads ; 

17. That none may be able to buy or sell, except 
they that have the mark, the name of the beast, or the 
number of his name. 

10. Here is wisdom. Let him that has a mind 
count the number of the beast; for the number is that 
of a man, and his number is six hundred and sixty-six, 
[AnooTaTTjg^. 

CHAPTER III. 14: 1-20. 197 A. D. 

The lamb and his 144,000 virgins on Mount Zion ; the 
angel heralds and harvesters. 

14: 1. And I saw, and behold the lamb stood on 
Mount Zion, and with him 144,000 [virgins], having 



32 



THE LAMB AND HIS VIRGINS. 



his name and the name of his father written on their 
foreheads. 

2. And I heard a voice from heaven, like the voice 
of many waters, and like the voice of loud thunder > 
and the voice which I heard ; was like cytharists playing 
on cytharas ; 

3. And they sung a new song before the throne, and 
before the four animals and the elders ; and none could 
learn the song but the 144,000 that were redeemed 
from the earth. 

4. These are they that did not defile themselves 
with women, for they are virgins ; these are they that 
follow the lamb wherever he goes; these are redeemed 
from men, a first fruit to the God, and to the lamb > 

5. And in their mouth was found no deceit, for they 
are spotless. 

6. And I saw another angel fly in mid-heaven, hav- 
ing the good news of the aeon to proclaim to those 
dwelling on the earth, and to every nation, and tongue* 
and tribe, and people, 

7. Saying with a loud voice: Fear the God and give 
him glory, for the hour of his judgment has come > 
and worship him that made heaven, earth, the sea, and 
fountains of waters. 

8. And another second angel followed, saying: Bab- 
ylon the great, which made the nations drink of the 
wine of the wrath of her fornication, has fallen utterly. 

9. Another third angel followed them, saying with 
a loud voice : If any one worships the beast or his im- 
age, and receives a mark on his forehead, or on his hand, 
he shall drink of the wine of the wrath of the God, 
mingled undiluted in the cup of his Orge [avenger]* 



THE LAMB AND HIS VIRGINS. 



33 



and he will be tormented with fire and brimstone be- 
fore the angels, and before the lamb. 

11. And the smoke of their torment shall ascend for - 
aeons of the aeons; and they have no rest day nor night ; 
that worship the beast and his image, and if any one 
receives the mark of his name. 

12. Here is the patience of the holy ones who keep 
the commandments of the God, and the faith of Jesus, 

13. And I heard a voice from heaven saying : Write 
blessed are the dead that die in the Master from this 
time; yes, says the spirit, for they rest from their 
labors, and their works follow with them. 

14. And L saw, and behold there was a white cloud, 
and on the cloud was one sitting like the son of man 
having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a 
s harp sickle. 

15. And another angel came out from the temple, 
crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, 
[saying] : Send your sickle and reap, for the hour to 
reap has come, for the harvest of the earth is dry. 

16. And he that sat on the cloud, cast his sickle on 
the earth, and the earth w T as reaped. 

17. And another angel came out of the temple in 
heaven, and he also had a sharp sickle. 

18. And another angel came out from the altar, who 
has power over fire [Uriel], and he called with a loud 
voice to him that had the sharp sickle, [saying] : Send 
your sharp sickle, and harvest the clusters of the vine 
of the earth, for the grapes of the earth are ripe. 

19. And the angel cast his sickle on the earth, and 
gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great 
winepress of the wrath of the God, and the winepress 



34 



THE LAST SEVEN PLAGUES. 



was trodden outside of the city ; and the blood came 
out from the winepress to the horses' bridles, a dis- 
tance of 1,600 stadiums [200 miles]. 

CHAPTER IV. 15: 1—16 : 21. 

The last seven plagues. 

15: 1 . And I saw another sign in heaven, great 
and marvelous, seven angels having the last seven, 
plagues, for by them the wrath of the God is finished. 

2. And I saw, as it were, a sea mingled with fire^ 
and those who were victors over the beast and his im- 
age and the number of his name, stood on the sea of 
glass, having cit haras of the God. 

3. And they sung the song of Moses, servant of the 
God, and the song of the lamb, saying : Great and 
marvelous are your works, Master, the God omnipo- 
tent; [Olion], just and true are your ways, king of 
nations [Jesus], 

4. Who will not fear you, Master, and glorify your 
name ; for you only are holy ; for all nations shall 
come and worship before you, for your ordinances are 
made manifest. 

5. And after this I saw, and the temple of the tab- 
ernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened ; 

6. And the seven angels came out that had the 
seven plagues, clothed in clean, bright linen, and gird- 
ed about the breasts with golden girdles. 

7. And one of the four animals gave the seven an- 
gels the seven bowls full of the wrath of the God that 
lives for the aeons of the aeons, and the temple was 



THE LAST SEVEN PLAGUES. 



35 



filled with smoke from the glory of the God, and from 
his power ; and none could enter into the temple till 
the seven plagues of the seven angels were finished. 

16: 1. And I heard a loud voice saying to the 
seven angels; Go, pour out the seven bowls of the 
wrath of the God on the earth. 

2. And the first went, and poured out his bowl on 
the earth; and there was a bad and troublesome sore 
on the men having the mark of the beast and wor- 
shiping his image ; 

3. And the second poured out his bowl on the sea r . 
and it became as the blood of a dead man ; and every 
living soul died of the things in the sea ; 

4. And the third poured out his bowl on the rivers 
and on the fountains of the waters, and [their water] 
became blood. 

5. And I heard the angel of the waters say : Right- 
eous are you who is and was, the holy one, because you 
judged thus ; 

6. For they shed the blood of saints and prophets, 
and you have given them blood to drink ; they are 
worthy of it. 

7. And I heard the altar say : Yes, Master, the God 
omnipotent, true and just are your judgments. 

8. And the fourth poured out his bowl on the sun;; 
and it was given it to scorch men with fire. 

9. And men were scorched with great heat, and 
blasphemed the name of the God, who had power over 
these plagues, but repented not, to give him glory. 

10. And the fifth poured out his bowl on the seat 
of the beast, and his kingdom was darkened, and they 
gnawed their tongues from pain ; 



36 



THE LAST SEVEN PLAGUES. 



11. And blasphemed the God of heaven, for their 
pains and for their sores, and repented not of their 
works. 

12. And the sixth poured out his bowl on the great 
river Euphrates ; and its water was dried up, for the 
way of the kings of the east to be prepared. 

13. And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs, from 
the mouth of the dragon, and from the mouth of the 
beast, and from the mouth of the false prophet. 

14. For they are the spirits of demons, doing mira- 
cles, that go forth to the kings of the whole world, to 
assemble them to the battle of that great day of the 
<rod omnipotent. 

15. Behold I come as a thief ; blessed is he that , 
watches and keeps his garments on, that he may not 
walk naked, and they see his shame. And he assem- 
bled them at the place called in Hebrew, Hamagedon. 

17. And the seventh poured out his bowl on the 
air ; and a loud voice came out from the temple, say- 
ing : It is done. 

18. And there were lightnings, and voices, and 
thunders, and a great earthquake, such as was not * 
since man was on the earth, [and] so great. 

19. And the great city was divided into three parts, 
and the cities of the nations fell, and great Babylon 
was remembered before the God, to give her the cup 
of the wine of the wrath of his Orge [avenger] • 

20. And every island fled, and the mountains were 
not found ; 

21. And great hail came down, about the weight of 
a talent [100 pounds], from heaven on men, and men 
blasphemed the God, for the plague of the hail ; for 
its plague was very great. 



A DEMON HARLOT. 



37 



CHAPTER V. 17 1 :— 1 : 18. 

A demon harlot is carried by the Roman imperial de- 
mon; the heads and horns of the demon interpreted. 

17 : 1. And one of the seven angels having the 
seven bowls, came and spoke to me, saying : Come, I 
will show you the judgment of the great harlot, that 
sits on the many waters [Pallas Athene], 

2. With whom the kings of the earth committed for- 
nication, and the inhabitants of the earth were made 
drunk with the wine of her fornication. 

3. And he took me away in spirit into a wilderness ; 
and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast, [the 
beast] full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads 
and ten horns. 

4. And the woman was clothed in purple and scar- 
let, adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, 
having a gold cup in her hand full of abominations, 
and [having] the impurities of the fornication of the 
earth. 

5. And on her forehead was a name written, Mys- 
tery, Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and of 
the abominations af the earth. 

6. And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of 
the holy ones, and with the blood of the martyrs of 
Jesus ; and seeing her, I wondered greatly. 

7. And the angel said to me : Why do you wonder ? 
I will tell you the mystery of the woman, and of the 

4 



38 



A DEMON HARLOT. 



beast that carries her, having the seven heads and ten 
horns. 

8. The beast which you saw was and is not, and is 
about to ascend from the abyss; and goes to perdition. 
And they that dwell on the earth will be astonished 
whose names are not written in the book of life of the 
lamb from the founding of the world, when they see 
the beast that was, and is not, and is to come presently. 

9. Here is the mind that has wisdom ; the seven 
heads are seven hills where the woman sits ; 

10. And they are seven kings ; five [Augustus, Ti- 
berius, Caligula, Claudius and Nero], have fallen ; one 
[Galba], is, the other, Otho, has not yet come, and 
when he has come he must continue a little while, 

11. And the beast that was and is not, [Vitellius],he 
is an eighth, aud is of the seven, and goes to perdition, 

12. And the ten horns which you saw, are ten kings 
who have not yet received the kingdom, but they will 
have power as kings in one hour after the beast. 

13. These [shall] have one mind and give their 
power and authority to the beast. 

14. They shall fight with the lamb ; and the lamb 
shall conquer them ; for he is Master of masters, and 
King of kings, and those with him are called and 
chosen and faith! uls. 

15. And he said to me : The waters which you saw, 
where the harlot sat, are peoples, multitudes, nations 
and tongues. 

16. And the ten horns which you saw, and the beast, 
these shall hate the harlot and make her desolate and 
naked, and devour her flesh and burn her with fire. 



THE FALL OF BABYLON. 



39 



17. For the God will put it in their hearts to do 
his will, and to be of one mind and give their kingdom 
to the beast, till the words of the God are finished. 

18. And the woman which you saw, is the great 
city that rules over the kings of the earth. 

CHAPTER VI. 18 : 1-24. 

The fall of Babylon. 

18 : 1. After these things I saw another angel come 
down from heaven, having great authority, and the 
earth was lighted with his glory. 

2. And he cried with a loud voice, saying : Babylon 
[Rome] has utterly fallen, and become an abode of de- 
mons, a hold of every unclean spirit, and haunt of 
every unclean and hated bird ; 

3. For she made all nations drink of the wine of the 
wrath of her fornication ; and the kings of the earth 
committed fornication with her, and the merchants of 
the earth were enriched with the abundance of her 
luxuries. 

4. And I heard another voice from heaven saying : 
Come out of her my people, that you be not partakers 
in her sins, and receive not of her plagues ; 

5. For her sins have reached to heaven, and the God 
has remembered her iniquities ; 

6. Repay her as she repaid you, and give her back 
double according to her works ; in the cup which she 
mixed, mix for her double; 

7. As much as she glorified herself, and lived in 
luxury, so much pain and sorrow give her; for she 



40 



THE FALL OF BABYLON. 



says in her heart, I sit a queen, and I am not a widow, 
and shall not see sorrow. Therefore, in one day, shall 
her plague come, death and sorrow, and famine, and 
she shall be burned ; for strong is Master, the God 
that judges her. 

9, And the kings of the earth that committed forni- 
cation and lived in luxury with her, shall weep and 
lament over her, when they see the smoke of her burn- 
ing; 

• 10. Standing far off 6 , for fear of her torment, saying : 
Alas ! alas ! the great city, Babylon the strong city ; 
for in one hour has your judgment come. 

11. And the merchants of the earth shall weep, and 
lament over her, because none buys their wares any 
more, wares of gold, silver, precious stones, pearls, 
byssus, purple, silk, scarlet, thyine wood, every ivory 
implement and every implement of most precious 
wood, of brass, of iron and of marble ; 

13. Cinnamon, amonium, ointment, frankincense, 
wine, oil, flour, wheat, cattle, sheep, [merchandise] of 
horses and chariots, and souls of men. 

14. And the fruits of your soul's desire have gone 
from you, and all your delicate and brilliant [treas- 
ures] have perished from you, and you will find them 
no more. 

15. And the dealers in these things who were en- 
riched by her, shall stand far off for fear of her tor- 
ment, weeping and lamenting, 

16. Saying : Alas ! alas ! the great city which was 
clothed with byssus, purple and scarlet, and adorned 
with gold, precious stones and pearls, for in one hour 
was so great riches made desolate. 



THE FALL OF BABYLON. 



41 



17. And every shipmaster, and every one that sails 
to a place, and the sailors who work on the sea, stood 
afar off, 

18. And cried, when they saw the smoke of her 
burning, saying : What was like this great city? 

19. And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, 
weeping and lamenting, saying : Alas ! alas ! the great 
city by which all were enriched from her wealth, who 
have ships on the sea; for in one hour was she made 
desolate. 

20. Rejoice over her heaven, the holy ones, apostles 
and prophets ; for the God has judged [and executed] 
your judgment on her. 

21. And a strong angel took up a stone like a great 
millstone and cast it in the sea, saying : Thus with vio- 
lence shall Babylon, the great city, be cast down, and 
be found no more. 

22. And a voice of cytharists, singers, flute-players 
and trumpeters shall no more be heard in you ; nor 
any artizan of any art be found in you any more, nor a 
sound of a mill be heard in you any more, nor the 
light of a lamp shine in you any more, nor the voice 
of a bridegroom and a bride be heard in you any more; 
for your merchants were the great ones of the earth, 
and nations were deceived by your sorcery. 

24. And in her was found the blood of prophets 
and saints, and of all that were killed on the earth. 



FART IV. 19 : 1—22 : 21. 200-1200 A. D. 



THE FINAL THEOCRACY OF THE WORLD. 



CHAPTER I. 19 : 1—20 : 6. 200 A. D. 

Jesus comes and reigns a thousand years ; the pious 
dead rise, and reign with him ; and Satan is impris- 
oned. 

19 : 1. And after this I heard a loud voice as of a 
great multitude in heaven, saying : Halleluia, salva- 
tion, glory and power are of our God ; 

2. For true and right are his judgments ; for he has 
judged the great harlot that corrupted the earth with 
her fornication, and avenged the blood of his servants 
at her hand, 

3. And again they said : Halleluia, and the smoke 
of her torment ascends for the aeons of the aeons. 

4. And the twenty-four elders and four animals fell 
down and worshiped the God who sits on the throne, 
saying : Amen, Halleluia. 

5. And a voice came out from the throne, saying • 
Praise our God all his servants, and they that fear 
him, small and great. 

6. And I heard a voice as of a great multitude, and 
a voice as of many waters, and a voice as of mighty 
thunders, saying: Halleluia, for our Master the God 
omnipotent reigns. 

7. Let us rejoice and exult, and give him glory ; for 



JESUS COMES AND REIGNS. 



43 



the marriage of the lamb has come, and his wife has 
made herself ready. 

8* And it was given her to be clothed with [gar- 
ments] of byssus bright and clean ; for [garments] of 
byssus are the ordinances of the holy ones. 

9. And he said to me : Write, Blessed are they that 
are called to the marriage supper of the lamb. And 
he said to me: These are the true, words of the God. 

10. Then I fell down before his feet to worship him, 
but he said to me : See that [you do it] not ; I am 
your tellow servant, and of your brothers who have 
the testimony of Jesus ; worship the God, for the testi- 
mony of Jesus is the spirit of the prophecy, 

11. And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white 
horse [came forth] ; and he that sat on him was called 
faithful and true; and with righteousness he judges 
and fights. 

12. His eyes are a flame of fire., and on his head are 
many crowns ; he has names written, and [one] name 
which none knows but himself ; he was clothed with 
a garment dipped in blood, and his name was called 
the Word of the God. 

14. And the armies in heaven followed him on 
white horses, clothed in [garments] of byssus bright 
and clean. 

15. Out of his mouth proceeds a sharp sword, with 
which to smite the nations ; and he shall rule them 
with a rod of iron, and tread the winepress of the wrath 
of the Orge [avenger] of the God omnipotent. 

16. And he has on his garment and on his thigh a 
name written, King of kings, and Master of masters. 



44 



JESUS COMES AND REIGNS. 



17. And I saw an angel standing on the sun ; and 
he cried with a loud voice, to all the birds that fly m 
mid-heaven, [saying]: Come, assemble yourselves to 
the great supper of the God, 

18. To eat the flesh of kings, and of captains of 
thousands, and of strong ones ; the flesh of horses and 
of them that sat on them, and the flesh of all, both free 
and slaves, both small and great. 

19. And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, 
and their armies assembled to fight with him that sat on 
the horse, and with his army. 

20. And the beast was taken, and with him the false 
prophet that did miracles before him, with which he 
deceived them that received the mark of the beast, 
and them that worship his image; and the two were 
cast alive into the lake of the fire that burns with 
brimstone. 

21. And the rest were killed with the sword of him 
that sat on the horse, which proceeded from his mouth; 
and all the birds were filled with their flesh. 

20 : 1. And I saw an angel descend from the heav- 
en, having the keys of the abyss, and a great chain in 
his hand ; and he seized the dragon, that is the old 
serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him 
for a thousand years, 

3. And he cast him into the abyss, and shut him in ; 
and put a seal over him, that he might not deceive the 
nations any more, till the thousand years were finished. 
After this, he must be released for a short time. 

4. And I saw thrones, and they that sat on them, 
and judgment was given them; and [I saw] the souls 
of them that were killed for the testimony of Jesus> 



POST MITHENNIAL KEVOLT. 



45 



and the Avord of the God, and that worshiped not the 
beast nor his image, nor received the mark on their 
foreheads, nor on their right hands ; and they lived 
and reigned with the Christ a thousand years, which 
is the first resurrection. 

6. Blessed and holy is he that has part in the first 
resurrection ; over these, the second death has no pow- 
er ; but they shall be priests of the God, and of the 
Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years. 

CHAPTER II. 20 : 7—22: 7, 

Post Mithennial revolt; the final judgment and its 
awards ; a new heaven, new earth and new Jerusa- 
lem. 

20 : 7. And when the thousand years are finished 
the Satan will be released from his prison, 

8. And go forth to deceive the nations which are m 
the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog ; [Ezek. 
38: 1—39: 29], to assemble them to the battle; 
whose number is as the sands of the sea. 

9. And they went up on the breadth of the earthy 
and surrounded the camp of the saints, and the be- 
loved city, and fire came down from heaven and con- 
sumed them. 

10. And the devil who deceived them was cast into 
the lake of the fire and brimstone, where are also the 
beast and false prophet, and they shall be tormented 
day and night, for the aeons of the aeons. 

11. And I saw'a great white throne, and him that 



46 



POST MITHENNIAL KEVOLT. 



sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven 
fled away, and no place was found for them; 

12. And I saw the dead, great and small, stand be- 
fore the throne ; and books were opened, and another 
book was opened, which is of Life ; and the dead were 
judged from the things written in the book, according 
to their works. 

13. And the sea gave up the dead that were in her, 
and Death and Hades gave up the dead that were in 
them ; and they were judged, each one according to 
their works ; 

14. And Death and Hades were cast into the lake 
of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. 

21 : 1. And I saw a new heaven and a new earth . 
for the first heaven and first earth passed away, and 
there was no more a sea. 

2. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming 
down out of heaven from the God, prepared as a bride 
adorned for her husband. 

3. And I heard a loud voice from the throne, say- 
ing : The tabernacle of the God is with men., and he 
will dwell with them, and they shall be his people ; 
and the God himself will be with them as their God ; 

4. And he will wipe every tear from their eyes; 
and there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor cry- 
ing, nor any more pain ; for the first things have 
passed away. 

5. And he that sat on the throne said : Behold, I 
make all things new. And he said : Write, that these 
words are faithful and true. 

6. And he said to me : It is done; I am Alpha and 



POST MITHENNIAL REVOLT. 



47 



Omega, the beginning and the end, and I will give to 
him that thirsts, of the water of life freely ; 

7. He that overcomes shall inherit these things, and 
I will be to him a God, and he he shall be to me a 
son ; 

8. But the cowardly, unfaithful, abominable, mur- 
derers, fornicators, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, 
shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire 
and brimstone, which is the second death. 

9. And one of the seven angels who had the seven 
bowls full of the last seven plagues, came and spoke 
to me, saying : Come, and I will show you the wo- 
man, the Lamb's bride. 

10. And he carried me away in spirit on a moun- 
tain great and high ; and showed me the holy city 
Jerusalem, whieh conies down out of heaven from the 
God, 

11. Having the glory of the God. Her light is like 
a most precious stone, like a crystaline jasper. 

12. She has a wall great and high; she has twelve 
gates, and over the gates twelve angels, and names are 
written on them, which are the names of the twelve 
tribes of Israel. 

13. On the east, are three gates ; on the north, three 
gates : on the south, three gates ; and on the west, 
three gates, 

14. And the wall of the city has twelve foundations, 
and on them twelve names of the twelve apostles of 
the lamb. 

15. And he that spoke with me had a measure, a 
gold reed to measure the city, her gates and her wall. 
And the city was laid out square, its length and breadth 



48 



POST MITHENNIAL REVOLT. 



were the same. And he measured the city with the 
rod, 12,000 stadia [1,500 miles]. The length, breadth 
and height of it were equal. 

17. And he measured its wall, 144 cubits, the meas- 
ure of a man that is of the angel. And the material 
of the wall was jasper, and the city pure gold, like 
clear glass. 

19. And the foundations of the wall of the city were 
adorned with very precious stones. The first foundation 
was jasper, the" second sapphire, the third chalcedony, 
the fourth emerald, 

20. The fifth sardonyx, the sixth sardian, the sev- 
enth chrysolite, and the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, 
the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh hyacinth, the 
twelfth amethyst. 

21. And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, each 
of the gates was of one pearl. And the street of the 
city was of pure gold, transparent as glass. 

22. And I saw no temple in it ; for the Master, the 
God omnipotent, is its temple, and the lamb. 

23. And the city has no need of the sun, nor of the 
moon, to light it ; for the glory of the God lights it, 
and its [lesser] light is the lamb. 

24. And the nations shall walk by its light, and the 
kings of the earth bring their glory into it. 

25. And its gates shall not be shut by day, for there 
shall be no night there ; 

26. And they shall bring the glory and the honor 
of the nations into it. 

27. And there shall not enter into it any thing that 
is unclean, or that commits an abomination or fraud, 
only those described in the Lamb's book of Life. 



CONCLUSION. 



49 



22: 1. And he showed me a river of water of Life, 
clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of the God, 
and the lamb, in the middle of its street. 

2. On this side of the river, and on that, were trees 
of life, bearing twelve fruits, rendering each fruit 
monthly; and the leaves of the trees were for healing 
the nations. 

3. And no curse shall be there, and the throne of 
the God and the lamb shall be in it, and his servants 
shall serve him ; 

4. And they shall see his face, and his name shall 
be on their foreheads. 

5. And there shall be no night, nor any need of a 
lamp or light, for the Master, the God, will shine on 
them ; and they shall reign for the aeons of the aeons. 

6. And he said to me : These words are faithful and 
true ; and Master, the God of the spirits of the proph- 
ets, has sent his angel to show his servants what must 
shortly come to pass. 

7. And behold [says Jesus], I come quickly; blessed 
is he that keeps the words of the prophecy of this book. 

CHAPTER III. 22: 8-21. 

Conclusion, 

22 : 8. And I, John, heard and saw these things; 
and when I heard, and saw, I fell down to worship 
before the feet of the angel that showed me these 
things ; 

9. And he said to me: See [that you do it] not; I 
am your fellow servant, and of your brothers the 
prophets, and of them that keep the words of this 
book ; worship the God. 



50 



CONCLUSION. 



10. And he said to me : Seal not up the words of 
the prophecy of this book ; the time is at hand; 

11. Let him that is unjust be unjust still, and him 
that is filthy be filthy still, and him that is just do jus- 
tice still, and him that is holy be holy still. 

12. Behold [says Jesus], I come quickly, and my 
reward is with me, to repay every one as his work is. 

13. I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, 
the beginning and the end. 

14. Blessed are they that keep his commandments^ 
that they may have a right to the tree of life, and en- 
ter by the gates into the city ; 

15. Without are dogs, sorcerers, fornicators, mur- 
derers, idolaters, and every one that loves and prac- 
tices fraud. 

16. I, Jesus, sent my angel to testify to you these 
things for the churches. I am the root and the stock 
of David, the bright morning star. 

17. And the spirit and the bride say, Come ; and let 
him that hears say, Come ; and let him that thirsts 
come ; and he that will, let him come, and take the 
water of life freely. 

18. I testify to every one that hears the words of 
the prophecy of this book ; if any one adds to them, 
the God will add on him the plagues described in this 
book ; 

19. And if any one takes away from the words of 
the book of this prophecy, the God will take away his 
par t from the tree of Life, and the holy city described 
in this book. 

20 . He that testifies these things, says : Yes, I come 
quickly. Amen ; Come, Master Jesus. 

21. The grace of Master Jesus be with you all. 



CRITICAL STUDIES OF REYELSTION 1. 



1. History of the Work. 

The Revelation of John makes its earliest appear- 
ance in the last half of the second Christian century, 
with five other revelations which were rejected as 
frauds. The rejected revelations were those of Corin- 
thus, Paul, Peter, Stephen and Thomas, and are un- 
fortunately lost. All were independent works, in no 
connection with apostolic letters or gospels. The ear- 
liest mention of this work is by Justin Martyr, at 
Rome, in his dialogue with Trypho the Jew, where he 
says : A certain man with us, whose name was John, 
in a revelation made to him, prophesied that those 
who believed in our Christ would spend a thousand 
years with him in Jerusalem. Justin evidently did not 
suppose that this was John the apostle, nor did he 
know who he was, further than appears from the work. 

In 200 it was received as a work of John the apos- 
tle, by Irenseus at Lyons, in Gaul ; by Tertullian at 
Carthage, in Northwestern Africa ; and by Clement at 
Alexandria, in Egypt. They gave the work to John 
the apostle, because they knew no other John capable 
of writing it, and because the writer had some of the 
peculiar doctrines of the gospel attributed to that apos- 
tle, especially his doctrine of Olion as the Father. 

The work does not appear in the canon of the apos- 
tles written at Rome in the name of Clement, claimed 



52 CRITICAL STUDIES OF REVELATION. 



to have been a companion of the apostles, in the third 
century ; showing that it was not yet accepted as apos- 
tolic at Rome, Origen, however, accepted it as apos- 
tolic in the first half of this century, and Dionysius, 
Bishop of Alexandria in 248-265, says, as reported by 
Eusebius : Some before us, set aside the Revelation of 
John, [claiming] that it was not a work of John, but 
of Cerinthus, founder of the sect of the Cerinthians; 
for it is a doctrine of Cerinthus, that there will be an 
earthly reign of Christ. As for me, I would not ven- 
ture to set the book aside ; as many brothers value it 
much. I do not deny that the author was called 
John ; but I would not easily agree that he was the 
apostle John. To attentive observers it is obvious that 
there is one and the same style in the gospel and the 
letter ; the style of Revelation is very different from 
that, not even approaching it. 

It was rejeced as not apostolic by Cyril, Bishop of 
Jerusalem in 348 ; by Gregory, Bishop of Nazianzum 
in 370; by the Council of Laodicea in 360-369; and 
by the Greek churches? generally at these times, as ap- 
pears from its rejection by that council and from other 
testimonies. 

But the provincial council of Hippo, the old capital 
of Nicomedia in Northwestern Africa, received it as 
apostolic in 393, near the close of the fourth century, 
with Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, at its head; and 
this turned the scale permanently in its favor. It was 
ever after received by a majority of Catholics, first in 
the West among the Latins, and later, in the East, 
among the Greeks. 

The council at Toledo, however, in 633, found it 



TFIR AUTHOR AND timr op the work. 



53 



still rejected by many of the clergy, who refused to read 
it in their churches, and requires them to read it, or be 
excommunicated. Nicephorus, Patriarch of Constanti- 
nople, rejected it early in the ninth century. 

Erasmus, one of the greater lights of the sixteenth 
century, rejected it as neither apostolic nor correct, as 
did Zwinglius, the great Swiss reformer of that cen- 
tury; and many other eminent scholars have done so 
since. 

The council of Trent in 1545-1563, preserved the 
sacred canon as it had been handed along from Augus- 
tine ; and Protestants adopted the same as settled by 
the Catholics. This council, however, allowed tradi- 
tion an equal authority with the Scriptures, which was 
in effect an abandonment of their supposed superior 
divine authority. From this judgment the Protestants 
of that period sharply dissented, greatly to the damage 
of their movement. Truth only is of divine authority, 
wherever found. 

2. The author and time of the work. 

The author in 1 : 9, declares himself to his seven 
churches, as John, your brother and companion in the 
affliction, kingdom, and patience in Christ Jesus. 
Christ Jesus means King Jesus. If the author had 
been an apostle he should have said so, as Paul did in 
his letters. This would not have proved him to be 
such, but the absence of this proves the contrary. He 
is only a brother, fellow-sufferer, and joint inheritor of 
the kingdom to be set up by Jesus. 

This also appears from his letters to the seven 
5 



54 



CRITICAL STUDIES OF REVELATION, 



churches, and from his prophecies. His Christology 
also is not that of the apostles nor of the Catholics. He 
has but seven churches, and they are ruled by angel 
princes in the way nations were ruled in the Hebrew 
Daniel. Neither the apostles nor the Catholics ever 
made that claim for churches ; their rulers were bish- 
ops, and deacons or ministers. 

Nothing in the work restricts it to the Catholics, or 
is inconsistent with the assumption that it originated 
with the Marcionites.. The author never refers to any 
Christian denomination by name, except the Nicolaites 
in 2 : 6, 15, and that woman Jezebel, a prophetess, in 
2: 20, 21 j but in 14 : 18-20, after the lamb had ap- 
peared on Mount Zion with his 144,000 virgins, he 
obscurely describes all denominations but his, as the 
dry and withered vine of the earth, to be harvested by 
angels, and the grapes to be trodden out in blood to the 
horses' bridles, to a distance of two hundred miles. 
This implies that the number thus dealt with was 
very great. 

Both the Cerinthians and Marcionites were formid- 
able rivals of the Catholics. Their founders were men 
of learning and genius, and of unquestionable sincerity; 
and the mutual hostility between the Catholics and 
them was extremely bitter. The Catholics denounced 
them in no measured terms, and they criticised the 
Catholics as misled and misleading the world. They 
and the Catholics agreed in the belief that the gods of 
the nations and a vast number of demons were injur- 
ing both the Supreme God and man ; and that Jeeus 
was sent to vanquish them and save the world. For 
this purpose, Cerinthus made him a man into whom a 



THE AUTHOR AND TIME OF THE WORK. 



55 



mighty celestial entered at his baptism, which also is 
the gospel theory ; and Marciou made him a mighty 
celestial in the disguise of a man, with a shadow body, 
which neither man nor demon could successfully assail. 
Neither tolerated the least immoralities. The Mar- 
cionites rejected animal food, wine and marriage; and 
mortified the flesh with frequent and long fasts. 

The author therefore, so far from being an apostle, 
was a Marcionite of the second century, when the 
apostles had died and were succeeded by the Catholics 
and dissenting sects. 

The assumed time of the work is shown as follows : 
In 17 : 9, the seven heads [of the demon] are seven 
hills on which the woman sits ; 10, and they are seven 
kings. Five have fallen [Augustus, Tiberius, Cali- 
gula, Claudius and Nero]; one is, [Galba 68, 69 A. D.], 
the other [Otho 69] has not yet come, and when he 
comes must continue a short time [three months and five 
days] ; 11, and the beast that was, and is not, [Vitel- 
lius 69], is also an eighth, and is of the seven, and goes 
to destruction [after eight months and five days]. This 
is an explicit assertion of his assumed time, making it 
68 A. D., under Galba. 

Had the writer closed his prophecies with the fifth 
seal, in 161 A. D., left the line of Roman emperors 
from Vespasian indefinite, and not declared the de- 
struction of Rome and coming of Christ at a definite 
time, it might have been difficult to demonstrate that 
his assumed time was not his real time. Three more 
Roman emperors bring us to the tenth ; and then the 
writer finds from a misapprehension of Dan. 7 : 8, 
24-26, as Pseudo-Paul I, had done, in 2 Thess. 2 : 1-12, 



56 CRITICAL STUDIES OF REVELATION. 

that a mighty demon was to succeed and reign three 
and a half years. This demon the author takes to be 
the constellation Hydra in a modified form. In the 
sky he was a water serpent, but here he is a compan- 
ion of the dragon, and takes his seat on land. 

While the demon was still dominant, the lamb, Aries, 
was to stand on Mount Zion with 144,000 virgins from 
all the tribes of Israel, the vine of the earth to be har- 
vested, the last seven plagues to be poured out, and 
Rome to be utterly destroyed. After this the lamb's 
marriage is celebrated, his bride in 21 : 9 is called the 
New Jerusalem. This is a very extraordinary bride, 
but perhaps was satisfactory to the Marcionites. 

Jesus now comes in his human form, followed by 
armies of the celestials, all on horses ; the first of the 
two great battles of the latter days is fought with men 
and demons, vast numbers killed, and Draco impris- 
oned in the abyss for a thousand years, while the pious 
dead rise and reign with their king. After the thou- 
sand" years Draco is released, leads another revolt, and 
another great battle is fought, when all the dead are 
assembled, judged and punished ; the old world passes 
away, a new world appears, and a New Jerusalem 
comes down from the God out of heaven lighted by 
the God and the lamb, who reign in it forever. 

All these predictions proved false ; if they had not 
done so, the world to-day would have been more than 
600 years under the New Jerusalem dispensation of 
the God and the lamb. How different have been the 
facts ! The demon did not reign, the lamb did not 
come to Mount Zion with his virgins, Rome did not 
fall, Jesus did not come with the armies of heaven, the 



THEOLOGY OF THE WORK. 



57 



pious dead did not rise, and nothing came as was said. 

It appears by all this that the work was a fraud, 
written under its fifth seal proximately in 150 A. D., 
when all its correct prophecies were made up from his- 
tory. The unfulfilled prophecies that follow 6 : 12, 
the conclusion of the seals, are not indefinite or ob- 
scure, and their non-fulfilment is as certain as that 
there is a sun in the heavens. 

3. Theology of the work. 

God is referred to only by the phrase the God. Such 
a phrase as in the expression the man, the book, the 
thing, ought somewhere to be defined, as to what God, 
what man, or what thing is meant ; but though the 
phrase is common here and in the New Testament 
books, it is not defined in any of them, and we are left 
to ascertain what god is meant as we can. This gen- 
eral suppression of the name of the god referred to, is 
itself significant, and implies that there was a general 
agreement that some god was supreme, and a disagree- 
ment as to which of the gods this was. The Supreme 
God is meant, whatever may have been his name. 

Daniel 7: 8-27, makes him Olionin the Hebrew 
Olion, as in Deut. 32: 8-14. Olion, and not Jeve, 
is the God of John 1 : 1, and the Father of John 1 ' 
18 ; 6 : 45, 46; 11 : 41 ; 11 : 23-26, etc. 

Almost the only employment of the prophets, how- 
ever, is the worship and praise of the God, which is 
described in 5 : 8 as incessant. Worship has its times 
with God, as in the intercourse of man with their hu- 
man superiors, but it is only incidental. It is not the 
main object of the lives of celestials or mortals. 



58 



CRITICAL STUDIES OF KEVELATXGN. 



In 4 : 2, 3, the God appears in great splendor, sit- 
ting on a superb throne, attended by twenty-four royal 
elders, seven archangels seen as burning lamps, and 
four animal gnards ; by all of whom he is adored and 
celebrated as the Creator; but grander far is the exhi- 
bition of him in his works where he appears in his im- 
mensity ; and also in a wisdom, power and goodness, for 
which we find no bounds. 

2. Jesus appears in 1 : 9-20, as a man with eyes 
like flames, hairs white as snow, feet like burnished 
brass, a voice like mighty rivers, and has a sharp two- 
edged sw T ord proceeding out of his mouth. No part of 
the description reflects any honor on him, and the 
sword proceeding from his mouth is singularly gro- 
tesque. His figure must have been gigantic to allow 
seven stars to be carried in his right hand. 1 : 9-20. 

At his second appearance, in 19 : 11-21, he has 
the sword proceeding from his mouth, wears many 
crowns, and is gorgeously arrayed, coming down from 
the opened heaven ; and the armies of heaven follow 
him, all on horses. The early Greeks found horses of 
superior breeds among their celestials. 

lu the heaven Jesus is a lamb slaughtered, it is not 
said sacrificed, from the founding of the world ; with 
seven eyes and seven horns. 5 : 6-8, 6 : 1. 

In 6 : 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 12, 8 : 1, he opens in due order 
the seven seals of the later Hebrew prophets, as the 
work appeared in heaven, fast by the throne of the 
God ; in 14: 1, he stands on Mount Zion, and 144,000 
Jewish virgins are with him ; in 13 : 8, we are told of 
his book of life ; also in 20: 12,21: 29,22: 19. Why 
the lamb has this book and not Jesus the man, is not 
said. 



THEOLOGY OF THE WORK. 



59 



According to the Marcionites, Jesus the man had 
only a shadow body, assumed for a temporary purpose, 
and laid aside when that purpose was accomplished. 
According to 21 : 23, the God and the lamb are the 
lights of the New Jerusalem, and according to 19 : 7, 
the lamb, and not the man Jesus, was about to be 
married, to the infinite delight of the other celestials, 
to his New Jerusalem. 

All this is explicable as follows : According to 
Greek fable, before the time of Homer, 900 B. C, a 
ram with a golden fleece appeared in Palestine and bore 
Phryxus and his sister Helle through the air, when 
they fled from the persecutions of their step-mother 
Ino. Helle fell into the sea, through no fault of 
her carryer, and was drowned, and gave it the name 
Hellespont, signifying Helle's sea. Phryxus, on ar- 
riving at Colchis, killed his mighty deliverer, sacri- 
ficed him to Zeus, and devoted his fleece to Ares, the 
Greek god of war. But the animal rose to the sky, 
and took his place there as the first of the constella- 
tions of the Zodiac. 

In consequence of a western revolution of the earth's 
orbit, around the axis of the ecliptic, at the rate of 
50", 24 a year, all the constellations lead in turn for 
more than 2,000 years each. The leadership of Aries 
is now past. John falls back on an older myth or else 
changes that of the Greeks so as to make Aries a lamb 
killed at the founding of the world, and the mighty 
celestial sent in the disguise of a man with a shadow 
body to save the world from hostile gods and other 
demons. 

Among the celestials that ruled on the earth accord- 



60 



CRITICAL STUDIES OF REVELATION. 



ing to the Astrologic theology of those times, the con- 
stellations Aries, Leo, Draco, Virgo and Hydra are 
prominent. Draco moved the war in heaven seen by 
the prophet, and Hydra was one of his companions in 
revolt ; while Aries, as the lamb, Leo as the lion of 
the tribe of Juda, and Virgo as the mother of the au- 
thor's church belong to the conquering host of Michael. 

4. The lion of the tribe of Juda, 5 : 5, is called the 
root of David, not a branch of his roots : and bis con- 
quest leads to the opening of the book of prophecy. 
This is the sixth constellation of the Zodiac, and has 
ninety-five stars. The lamb's opening the book of 
prophecy, is in pursuance of Leo's victories ; Scor- 
pio, the ninth constellation of the Zodiac, was the ce- 
lestial prince of Dan, Taurus of Joseph, and Aquarius 
of Reuben. 

In Gal. 4 : 3, Paul says : So we, when we were 
children, were enslaved under the constellations of the 
world, and in verse 9, Why do you turn back again 
to the weak and beggarly constellations ? Here the 
constellations of the Zodiac, according to Paul, were 
angel rulers of the world till the coming and conquest 
of Jesus; and in 1 Cor. 2: 6-8, Paul refers to them 
as the archons of this aeon whom Jesus overthrew. 
Pseudo-Paul L, in Col. 2 : 14, 15, makes Jesus after 
his death, triumph over arches, [archangels], and 
exousias, [celestial powers], supposed to have been in 
revolt from God, and to have enslaved men; 

In Gal. 3: 19, Paul says: The law was ordained 
through angel's by the hand of a Mediator [Jeve], and 
Stephen is made in Acts 7: 53, to speak of the Jews 
as having received the law by the ordering of angels 



THEOLOGY OF THE WORK. 



61 



and not kept it. For the worship of the sun, stars 
and constellations under the kings ; see 2 Kings 7 : 16, 
21: 3; 2 Chron. 23: 3. 

5. Of the holy angels, seven are described in 3: 1, 
as the seven spirits of the God, and in 4 : 5 as seven 
lamps burning before the throne of the God. These 
were the seven archangels of the later Hebrews, five of 
whom appear elsewhere by their names as Al, Michael, 
Uriel, Raphael, Gabriel. 

6. The four animal guards in 4: 6-8, are copied 
with variations from the Hebrew cherubs. They have 
rational minds, in animal bodies, and are liberally fur- 
nished with eyes and wings. They differ from the 
cherubs of Ezek. 1 : 1-21, 10 : 1-12 ; but were such 
as might have been referred to in Ezek. 28 : 14, to 
which the king of Tyre was compared in the days of 
his prosperity and glory, 

7. There are three women among the constellations 
Casseopea, Andromeda her daughter, and Virgo wor- 
shiped by the Greeks as the goddess Astrea. The 
Hebrew worshipers of the constellations doubtless had 
different ideas of them, but these are not preserved. 
The only one of these women that is at any time 
clothed with the sun, and has the moon under her feet, 
is Virgo, the seventh constellation of the Zodiac. She 
is in this condition a month every year. The sun en- 
ters her section of the Zodiac Sept. 15, and is a month 
in passing through it. We judge, thereiore, that 
Virgo is the author's woman in the heaven in 12: 1, 2. 
Her illustrious son was perhaps Marcion. When Draco 
was cast down to the earth, this woman and her seed, 
the Marcionites, are also here, and are protected from 



£2 CRITICAL STUDIES OF REVELATION. 

Draco's fury. This woman's steller crown is set with 
the twelve Hebrew patriarchs. 

8. The celestial dragon in 12: 3, is the constella- 
tion Draco, the dragon, which has eighty stars, and 
winds among the other northern constellations with 
six coils. His natural position is at a distance from 
Virgo, but at the time referred to, he is imagined to 
stand before her. He figures largely in the old astrol- 
ogies as a malignant power. Many were the innocent 
Jobs, whose lives he was supposed to darken and em- 
bitter. 

The war in heaven noted in 12 : 7, would naturally 
be suggested by the November meteors of 1833, which 
occur in their full splendor only after a series of years. 
They had probably been seen by the author, and were 
interpreted by him as foreshadowing the more terrific 
action which he describes^ when the third of all the 
stars were to fall to the earth, and their prince became 
its ruler for the next three and a half years. 

4. Demonology of the work, 

Demons are often noticed in the New Testament, 
especially in the Gospels. In the first three we con- 
tinually meet with demoniacs, who were supposed to 
be possessed by one or more. These are made to ac- 
knowledge Jesus as the Son of God, and are silenced 
and cast out by him ; they were supposed to have Bel- 
zebub for their ruler, Mark 8: 22, Matt. 9 : 34, 12 : 
24, etc*. These were supposed to inhabit desolate 
places, to be very numerous, and to be extremely hos- 
tile to God and men. How the world endured them, 



DEMON OLOGY OF THE WORK. 



63 



it is not very easy to see. The Gospel of Nicodemus 
has Jesus make Satan subject to Belzebub when he 
went down to the under- world after his crucifixion. 
Gospel Nicodemus 18 : 1-14. 

The Gospel stories that Jesus acknowledged the re- 
ality of demons and pretended to cast them out of lu- 
natics and epileptics are pious frauds. Such imposi- 
tions were practiced on the Jews. Joseph us, one of 
the most learned aud sober Pharisees of his age, relates 
in A. J., page 305, one of them as follows : I saw a 
man of my country, Eleazar by name, releasing demo- 
niacs in the presence of Vespasian and his sons, cap- 
tains and soldiers. He put a ring that had a certain 
root in it mentioned by Solomon, to the nostrils of the 
demoniac and drew out the demon through his nos- 
trils, and when the man fell down immediately, he 
adjured him not to return, still mentioning Solomon 
and reciting the incantations which he composed. 

Still further to show the reality of the miracle, Elea- 
zar set a basin of water a little way off from the patient, 
and commanded the demon as he went out, to over- 
turn it, which he did; thus the wisdom of Solomon 
was very clearly shown. Some fragments of the old 
books of conjuration are still extant. 

John in Revelation does not notice any of the gospel 
demons but Satan, whom he identifies with the con- 
stellation Draco. 

1. Draco the dragon, after his defeat and fall from 
the heaven in which he had his home hitherto, 13 : 2, is 
now an evil demon of the earth, with all the powers 
that he previously had as a celestial, and retains his 



64 



CRITICAL STUDIES OF REVELATION. 



dragon form, with some additions. He is also the 
head of a demon empire that fell with him. 

2. The Roman imperial demon in 13: 1-10, rises 
out of the sea. The ancients found seas as well as 
rivers, and marine animals in the heavens. The Ro- 
man imperial demon emerges from the celestial sea ; 
this is the constellation Hydra, containing sixty stars. 
The name signifies a water serpent, while Draco in- 
habits deserts. Such is the length of this celestial that 
when his head is on the meridian his tail is many de- 
grees below the horizon. 

As seen by John, this monster had seven heads and 
ten horns, to correspond to the Roman emperors. The 
heads correspond to the line from Augustus to Otho, 
terminating in the writer's assumed time, and the 
horns to the emperors to follow, beginning with Ves- 
pasian. According to Greek fable, as reported by 
some, this monster had nine heads, others gave him 
fifty, and others a hundred ; he is among the rebels, 
cast out of the heavens with Draco. 

3. The Roman priestly and prophetic demon in 
13: 11-18, is a caricature of Apollo, whose oracle at 
Delphi was long celebrated. His two horns corres- 
pond to the Roman priests and augurs. In 19 : 20, 
he is called the false prophet. 

4. The three spirits like frogs from the mouth of 
the dragon, and the two other monster demons, in 
16 : 13, are common demons. 

5. Abaddon the destroyer, and his infernal locusts 
from the abyss, in 9 : l-12j are to be interpreted liter- 
ally. The expectation was based on Joel 2: 2-11. 
Abaddon appears in Prov. 15 : 11, in the expression^ 



DEMONOLOGY OF THE WORK. 



65 



Sheol and Abaddon are before Jeve, much more the 
hearts of men; and in Job 26 : 6, it is said Sheol is 
naked before him [Al], and Abaddon has no covering. 
So Abaddon and Death said, etc., in Job 28 : 22. 
Abaddon corresponds to the Greek Hades, a brother 
of Zeus and Poseidon, and ruler of the under-world. 

6. The demon harlot of the city of Rome, in 17 : 
1-6, is a caricature of Pallas Athene, called by the 
Romans Minerva, and worshiped as the goddess of 
wisdom. She was mighty and humane in war, but was 
chiefly distinguished as a patron of the arts and sci- 
ences, and especially of the arts of peace. She is simi- 
larly caricatured as the strange woman, in Prov. 2: 
16-22, 5 : 3-14, etc. ; in both cases she is grossly mis- 
represented ; she had nothing of the harlot. Pallas is 
the Sanscrit goddess of wisdom, and Athene of chastity j 
the Greeks and Romans united the two, and the Ro- 
mans called her Minerva, one of the Sanscrit titles of 
Pallas. 

7. The four angels released on the Euphrates in 
9 : 13—21, are the angel princes of Assyria, Media, 
Babylon and Persia, some of whom are referred to in 
Dan. 10 : 13, 20. They were supposed to be bound 
after the fall of those empires. 

The armies of the kings of the East have the incred- 
ible number of 200,000,000, 9 : 16. It is not said 
that they came from below, but from afar ; their affin- 
ities, however, are with the infernals. This prophecy 
is based on Isa. 5 : 26-30, 13: 2-18. 

Since the revival of learning, with the vast progress 
of science in modern times, the doctrine of demons has 
greatly declined, and is passing rapidly away. The 



66 



CRITICAL STUDIES OF KEVELATION. 



ancients had much trouble from demons, and the bar- 
barous tribes of Africa do to this day. Lunatics and 
inebriates sometimes encounter them, but they never 
put themselves in the way of persons of intelligence, 
courage and sound minds. 

5. The riddle of 666 the demon's name. 

This appears in 13: 18. Let him that has a mind 
compute the number of the beast; for the number is 
that of man; and his number is 666. 

There are two possible solutions of this riddle : 
1. The name is the Greek word for apostate, spelled 
with sti, a complex character for the letters sigma 
tau. 2. The title of the demon is Basileia Latine r 
queen of the Latins, that is, their celestial princess. 
The former of these solutions is favored by 2 Thess. 
2 : 1-12, the latter by the doctrine of celestial princes, 
as taught in Dan. 10: 13, 20, 21; Gal. 4: 1-11, 
where elements in King James' Bible should be con- 
stellations. 

Other solutions have been proposed. The Basileia 
Latine has been proposed as signifying the Latin church 
in the sense of Latin kingdom ; we propose it in the 
sense of celestial princess of the Latins, reckoned by 
Col. 2: 15, among the arches and exousias, powers, 
such as Jesus is said to have vanquished after his 
death. This great power was to be vanquished at the 
opening of the millenium in Rev. 19 : 17-21. None 
of the analogies of this solution are too remote to be 
admissable. 

Barnes accepts the manufactured word karelvog, La- 



PLACE OF HOSTILE ENCAMPMENT. 



67 



teinos, which gives the number wanted, but does not 
denote the demon power. Equally unsatisfactory is 
the solution adopted by Dr. Henry Cowles and others, 
making Nero written in Hebrew characters and made 
Neron, the name, Nero was the fifth of the seven 
heads, all of whom had fallen before the author's as- 
sumed time ; the demon both preceded and survived 
all the heads, and the ten horns that followed, and was 
a power above them all. Our solution of queen or 
princess of the Latins, leaves nothing to be desired. 
The riddle as thus solved is one of the best among all 
that are reported in the sacred books, or perhaps in any 
others, and its solution is perfect. 

6. Place of hostile encampment 

16 : 16. And he assembled them at the place called 
Harmagedon. The persons here assembled are the 
kings of the whole world and their armies ; and the 
assembling is for the battle of the great day of the God 
omnipotent, to precede the millennium, 

Harmagedon is a word made up from the Hebrew 
Har, mountain, and Magedon, a city of Manasse in 
the territory of Issachar, near Shechem, the holy city of 
the Samaritans. It is equivalent to Mount Magedon, 
meaning a mountain near that city. The place per- 
haps was selected for the assembled nations for security. 
When every island fled and the mountains were not 
found, as stated in verse 20, this host obtained little 
help from its position. The great battle of Jesus and 
his celestials, before the millennium, was not fought 
before Jerusalem, but before Shechem, the sacred city 
of the Samaritans. 



68 



CBITICAL STUDIES OP REVELATION. 



Jerusalem is not mentioned in the account of the 
millennium ; but after the old world has passed away, 
a New Jerusalem built of gold, of vast size and incon- 
ceivable splendor, is the sole capital of the new world, 
and the happy home of all the saved. 

7. Estimate of the work. 
It has much of the beautiful and sublime ; and these 
characteristics probably saved it from destruction, to 
which the other revelations of the second century were 
all consigned. 

It has also much of the grotesque. Besides, its spirit 
is fearfully revengeful, and its punishments shocking; 
its scheme of the universe and its government is erro- 
neous, and all its angels and demons imaginary. 
Notwithstanding previous disappointments, the writer 
has full faith in the final theocracy, and thinks that 
in his time, 150 A. D., the fulfilment of all that was 
predicted concerning it from Isaiah to Pseudo Paul I., 
will certainly come to pass. He modifies many of 
these prophecies, revises the Christology of the first 
three gospels, follows at a distance that of the fourth 
gospel, makes Christ the constellation Aries, consid- 
ered as^the celestial lamb, and one of the mightiest of 
the celestial powers, with a shadow body, and has him 
sent by the father, the God Olion, to save the world 
from a vast principality of gods and demons, by which 
it was supposed to be corrupted. With these extraordi- 
nary assumptions the author renews the conflict of the 
prophets on the plea that their works were sealed 
books impossible to be read in their higher senses, till 
theHamb' opened them ; and further, that the lamb had 
opened them to him in the visions which he describes. 



ESTIMATE OF THE WORK, 



69 



This is the only great work that is preserved from 
the prolific pens of the Marcionites, and was saved by 
the Catholics. The world will thank them for sav- 
ing it 

The Marcionites were a sect of the Gnostics. The 
Gnostics had learning and genius, and furnished a 
fair proportion of the Christian martyrs, though they 
did not court martyrdom as some of the Catholics did; 
and some of them deemed it right to save their lives 
by concealing and even denying their faiths. The 
Gnostics rejected many Jewish fancies as false, and 
adopted many absurd opinions from the Orientals. 
Marcion was less extravagant than some, but his as- 
sumptions in regard to the spirit world depart far from 
the cautious methods of science. 

The prophetic office among the Hebrews commanded 
the highest respect from Moses in 1640 B. C. to 156 

A. D., the author's time, 1790 years. In this work it 
fought its last battle, and fell, never to rise again. 

Prophets and oracles were in high repute among the 
Greeks for the same period, and fell at about the same 
time. The Roman augurs improve on the Greek 
prophets, but had a like fall a few years later. 

The Hebrew prophets met their first great defeat 
in the fall of Mosaic theocracy, under Samuel, in 1695 

B. C. ; they were defeated again in the fall of the 
Davidic dynasty, and the loss of Palestine, in 588 ; 
and a third time, in the fall of the Asmonean dynasty 
of priest kings in 37 B. C. ; but in the last half of the 
second Christian century they met, over the Revela- 
tion of John, their final defeat. Never was battle 
more bravely fonght, and never was defeat more thor- 



70 CRITICAL, STUDIES OF REVELATION. 

ough than here. Yet such was the skill with which 
the writer handled his forces, so cautiously did he pro- 
vide for a retreat, and so promptly and vigorously was 
a retreat effected under the plea of enigmatic senses not 
possible to be understood till their accomplishment, 
that seventeen centuries have not been sufficient to sat- 
isfy Christendom that the prophetic profession was 
overthrown in that disaster. 

The author takes up the line of unfulfilled prophe- 
cies where it left the facts of history in the Chaldee 
Daniel, announces the periods and modes of the fulfil- 
ment of many leading prophecies that had already 
failed; and failed again. These prophecies have been 
kept in credit 1700 years by sophistical reasonings. 
Among all the schemes adopted for this purpose, the 
most plausible is that of Swedenborg, and many^yho 
perceive the fallacies of the other schemes accept this. 
The fatal defect of Swedenborg's argument, is the beg- 
ging of the first question, that the work is divinely 
inspired. This is not self-evident, nor has it ever been 
proved by Swedenborg or any other of the numerous 
writers on the book. It is disproved by the fact that 
the theology, Christology and demonology of the book 
are all incorrect and that its principal prophecies are 
demonstrably false. 

The book, however, is of great value if correctly in- 
terpreted, and well deserves the attention of all bibli- 
cal inquirers and students of the past or present. 



Ebeata — For loins on page 6, verse 13, read breasts; for Ha- 
magadon on page 36, verse 15, read Harmagedon; and for Post 
Mithennial in the headings on pages 45-48, read Post Millennial 









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